On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 12:38 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > But I would caution against too much criticism of mailing list > participants - it will tend to stifle participation as people become > afraid of breaking the rules or getting jumped on by others. There is > a happy medium between the two extremes.
Good point, Steve. As Jim pointed out yesterday, so long as it doesn't violate the rules of the reflector, it's not an issue. The free-flow discussion format here has certainly resulted in countless pieces of excellent info being passed to others. It's up to us to decide whether or not the posting is of interest to us, nothing more. Being a member of this list for over a decade, it is clearly the best one for overall conduct and useful information of any others I'm subscribed to. A similar discussion took place recently on another list where the list owner observed a more irritable tone in recent months. One poster astutely pointed out that folks sometimes say or do things online that they'd not likely consider in person, simply because of the ease involved. For example, if you were at a radio club dinner with your friends and a group of them were discussing something like solid state radios of no interest to you, it's not likely that you'd tell them to shut up or change the subject. Instead you'd either listen in respectfully or move on to strike up a conversation elsewhere. Perhaps a lot of the silly arguments and issues that arise are related to folks spending too much time online and less time with other people, face to face or on the air. Personally I'm a mere newb compared to John's 52 years as a ham, having only been licensed for about 27. My radio and electronics interest and career only spans about 34 years. So any opportunity I get to pick up something from the true masters is well worth the time involved. The older I become and the more I learn, the fewer posts are relevant. But 'the rest' goes with the territory and is part of the limitations experienced with any tool. The internet is a great tool, used properly. But it's not the answer to everything and it's no substitute for real life experiences. Like anything else, it's only as good as you make it. I hope everyone enjoys some good family and radio time through the remainder of the holiday season, and a prosperous new year. ~ Todd, KA1KAQ/4 ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
